View full sizeThe Oregonian front page for Jan. 28, 2010.Oregon voters this week raised income taxes in an election watched across the country. And that's just the sign Gov. Ted Kulongoski needed to push for 'kicker' reform, reports this morning's Oregonian. Instead of returning higher-than-expected tax revenue to taxpayers, the governor wants the money to go into a state savings account to help Oregon ride out future recessions, staff writer Harry Esteve reports.

Legislative reaction was, Esteve reports, not enthusiastic.

Kulongoski, a Democrat, told The Oregonian he considers kicker reform
his top priority for the monthlong legislative session that will start
Monday. If lawmakers don't do something about the kicker, Kulongoski
suggested, he'd use his authority to order them back to Salem until
they do.

"As much as the Legislature can call itself into
session, I can call them into session," he said. "This is one of those
critical points in Oregon history where we have to make a decision on
this."

Oregon's kicker law, which refunds money to individual
and corporate taxpayers when state revenue exceeds projections by 2
percent or more, has long been a touchy subject. Residents remember
good times, when checks seemed to arrive every other Christmas.

Legislative leaders were lukewarm to the governor's idea.

"It's
certainly not on the list of definitive things we plan to accomplish in
February," said House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone. Hunt said the
main focus of the short session will be on the state's bleak employment
picture, including bills to extend unemployment benefits and make it
easier for businesses to get loans.

It's an attack that's shocked Seattle: a 15-year-old teen beat a Metro bus driver when she wouldn't open a rear door of the bus. The Times reports that the assault took place just after midnight Saturday as the bus stopped on International Boulevard South in Tukwila. The driver, a 56-year-old grandmother of five, is recuperating from her injuries at home.

A 15-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with two counts of assault
in connection with the attack. The Renton High School ninth-grader
could face a maximum sentence of 15 weeks to three years in juvenile
detention if he's convicted.

The teen is not being named because he is being charged in juvenile court.

According to court charging papers, the teen swore at the driver and
"cussed" her out because she wouldn't let him out the back door of the
bus after some of his friends were allowed to use the door.

The teen told King County sheriff's deputies he never hit the woman,
but the driver identified the 15-year-old as "the face I saw just
before I lost consciousness."

Several other teens who were with the boy that night told
investigators the 15-year-old had bragged just before the assault that
he planned to beat up the driver, prosecutors allege.

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